Rail retaining and spike fastening means



aw 13, 1948, G, w, MULLER 4 2,434,579

R XIL RETAINING AND SPIKE FASTENING MEANS Filed April 3, 1944 a gym/0W Geoiye mum);

Patented Jan. 13, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT ore-ice RAIL RETAINING AND s ngs; rasrnnmn, MEANS;

George W.- Muller, Miami- Beach, Fla.

pplicatio pril-3; 19 ser a Noti itil-fi 2 Claim5-. (Cl. 238-349) This invention relates to railway track struc,-. tures, and has particular reference to improvements in means, of the general type described and claimed in my, prior Patent No. 2,291,743 of August 4, 1942, to retain rails upon tie-plates and to prevent upward: loosening movement of, the spikes by which thetie-plates are fastened upon the ties.

As'in the case-of my-invention described andclaimed in my said prior patent, my presentinvention employs a resilient clam-p plate the inner end portion of which overlies th rail flange and isseated upon either-said flange or-the tie-plate, the outer end portion of which is seated upon the head of a spike-by which the tie-plate is fastened to the tie, and the medial portion of which is spaced above and secured, to the tie-plateby a bolt or other suitable fastener. Thus, any upwardg movement imparted to the inner end portion of the clamp-plate by upward movement of the rail tends to cause said clamp-plate to fulcrum about the fastener by which it is secured to, the tie-plate and thereby to intensify the downward pressure of its outer end portion upon the head of-the spike. Consequently, the rail is restrained against upward movement, the spike effectively is held at all times against any upward loosening movement with respect to the tie, and the'tie-plate advantageously is held'firmly seated upon the tie. Moreover, the tie obviously is held against dropping away from the rail, which acts as. a beam, with the very advantageous result that, should the tie become loose in the roadway ballast, the finer particles of the roadway ballast material may creep beneath the tie and maintain the same high and firmly supported. The net result is a firm track in which all ties remain uniformly high and firmly supported, which is devoid of loose rail fastenings, which possesses long life and which isconducive to smooth passage of trains thereoverwith little. track noise.

The clamp-plates should be amply thin and resilient to permit the rails to partake freely of their natural wave motion without appreciably transmitting this motion to the ties. In other words, said clamp-plates cannot practicably be thick, stilt and sluggish in their action. At times however, they may be subjected to great bending loads and therefore theyrnust be capable of sustaining such loads. Accordingly, one special and important object of my present invention is to provide a clamp-plate which is amply thin and resilient to permit the rails to partake freely of their natural wave motion without appreciably 2. transmitting this, motion to the ties and which, at the same time, embodies a design suchthat, when it is mounted in accordance with the inven; tion, it is, fully. capableof sustaining the. great bending loadssto which, it may, at times, be sub; jected,

Another special and important object of the invention, is, to, provide, the outer end, portion of, the clamp-plate. with a substantially spherical spikeahead-accommodating. socket so that, the clamp-plate may be used in various different angular positionsrelative tothe railaandyetwill seat firmly, upon the. spikev head. and be held therebnagainst,rotating from its operativeposig tion. relative to. therail regardless of. the angular disposition of the, spike relative thereto.

Another special. and important object of, the invention is. to form the outer end portion ofthe clamp-plate. for engagement with, the tieplate to effectivelyv hold, the clampplate against tilt ing laterally.

With the foregoing. and. various other objects in View, which. will. becom more fully apparent as the. natureof thev invention is better understood, the same. consists in th novel combina tion and. arrangement of elements, and in the novel features of construction, thereof, as will be hereinafter more; fully described, illustrated in the accompanying, drawings and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying. drawings, wherein like characters: of reference denote. corresponding partsin related views:

Fig. 1 is, a transverse section through a portion of a. track equipped with a clamp plate in accordance with the. invention; and

Fig. 2 is, a cross sectionv on the line 2-.- of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings in detail, it will be observed that a portion of; a tie is designated as A. a Po tion. f t ea re tin v upon the top of; the tie is designated as l}, the base portion of .a, rail seatedupon the tie;pl-ate isdesignated as C, a spike .secu ng the tie-plate to the tie is designated; as l), a rail-retainingandspike-securing clamp-plate. is designated as E, and a fastenerfor securingthe .clarnp plate to the tier plate is designated as E.

It will further be observed that the outer end portion. In ofthe clamp-plate E is seated. upon the top of the, head It of the spike D and the inner end portion I; of said clamp-plate is seated upon the bafse flffil e l 3 of the rail 0. It will additionally. b observedthat the fastener F cooperates with the clamp-plate intermediate its ends.

Manifestly, therefore, the clamp-plate is in the nature of a lever fulcrumed upon its fastener F. Consequently, any upward movement imparted to the inner end portion of the clamp-plate by the rail as the latter partakes of its natural vertical wave motion during passage of trains thereover, will result in intensification of downward pressure of the outer end portionthereof upon the spike, thereby preventing any upward loosening movement of the spike relative to the tie. Moreover, in the eventof sinking of the tie-plate into the tie due to traffic loads imposed upon the rail or due to any other cause, the spike will be forced downwardly into the tie in follow-up relationship to the tie-plate and hence the spike will be maintained at all times tightly engaged with the tieplate and the latter will be maintained tightly seated upon the tie.

The clamp-plate is formed from high grade spring steel and preferably is maintained normally under downward flexure by the fastener F so as constantly to urge the spike downwardly regardless of any upward movement imparted to the inner end portion of the clamp-plate by the rail. In any event, since the clamp-plate subjects the spike to constant downward pressure and therefore maintains the same tight, the tieplate obviously is held firmly seated upon the tie and the latter obviously is held against dropping away from the rail, with the aforesaid very advantageous result that the finer particles of the roadway ballast material may creep beneath any low tie and thus insure maintenance of all ties uniformly high and firml supported. The net result is, as aforesaid, a firm, solid track which is devoid of loose ties, loose tie-plate and loose rail fastenings, which possesses long life and is conducive to smooth passage of trains thereover with little track noise and in which, moreover, there is little or no likelihood of the rails tilting or twisting and thereby becoming broken.

In any given track section all of the ties or only some of the same may have the present rail retaining and spike securing means associated therewith, and in connection with any given rail and tie only a single clamp-plate may be employed at one side of the rail or a pair of clampplates may be employed, one at each side of the rail, Preferably, however, a pair of clamp-plates are employed in association with each tie, one at each side of each rail. In any event, the clampplates may be disposed either at right angles to the rails or diagonally at any desired inclination with respect thereto so as more effectively to hold the rails against creeping longitudinally.

Preferably the clamp-plates are amply thin and resilient to permit the rails to partake freely of their traffic-induced wave motion substantially without transmitting this motion to the ties. At times. however, the clamp-plates may be subjected to great bending loads. Therefore, they must be amply strong to sustain such loads. In this connection it will be noted that the outer end portion of the clamp-plate is offset downwardly from the medial portion of said plate and is connected with the said medial portion by a subtsantially vertically disposed, stiffening leg portion M to transmit load from the portion, 12 to the portion [0. It will also be noted that the fastener F is disposed closely adjacent to the substantially vertically disposed stiffening and load transmitting leg portion l4 and also closely adjacent to the spike D. The lever arm constituted by the portion of the clamp-plate outwardly of the fastener F to the vertical leg portion [4 therefore is of short effective length so as to be subjected to very little fatigue due to bending. Moreover, the leg portion M, by virtue of its substantially vertical disposition, acts in compression to transmit forces from the medial portion of the clamp-plate to the spike-head-engaging outer end portion thereof. Accordingly, while the clampplate is amply thin and flexible to function in the manner desired, its design is such that it is strong with reference to the major forces and particularly the bending forces to which it is subjected in service. Consequently, there is little chance of the same becoming cracked or broken under flexing loads. The leg portion I4 serves also in the nature of a positive stop to limit tightening of the nut of the fastener F s that there is little or no possibility of flexing the medial portion of the clamp-plate so far downwardly as to endanger breakage of said clamp-plate.

With reference to the spike-head-engaging outer end portion ill of the clamp-plate, it will be noted that the same is of open-bottom, substantially spherical socket form so as snugly to accommodate the substantially spherical top portion of the spike head I l. Accordingly, the outer end portion ll] of the clamp-plate alway will seat solidly and centrally upon the spike head and the clamp-plate therefore will not be subjected to torsional stresses such as likely would be set up therein if its outer end portion I0 seated at one side or the other thereof upon one side or the other of the spike head. Moreover, due to the socket form of the portion I0 the same effectively cooperates with the spike head to prevent any rotation of the clamp-plate in the plane thereof about its fastener F. The clamp-plate therefore is held effectively in its operative position relative to the rail.

As shown, the outer end portion IQ of the clamp-plate is provided at one side with a downwardly directed toe or corner formation 20 to engage the top of the tie plate and thus assist in holding the clamp-plate against transverse rocking movement.

The head of an ordinary track spike is of such form that it seats downwardly upon a tie-plate only at the under side of its lip along only one edge of the hole in the tie-plate. Moreover, the upper portion of the shank of an ordinary spike is flared so that it tightly engages the walls defining all four sides of a spike-hole in a tie-plate only when it is fully driven home. The tie-plate therefore is held effectively against lateral shifting movement relative to the tie only as long as the spike remains tightly engaged with the tieplate. Sooner or later, however, a tie-plate, under traffic loads, will sink into a tie, and when this occurs in connection with tie-plates fastened by ordinary spikes in the ordinary manner, the tieplates will become loose even if there is no upward loosening movement of the spikes relative to the tie. In other words, the tie-plate will move downwardly relative to the spikes and the result will be the same as if the spikes became loose and moved upwardly relative to the tie and the tieplate. According to the present invention, however, the spike is forced downwardly as any sinking of the tie-plate into the tie takes place, with the result that the tie-plate is maintained at all times securely fastened upon the tie against any possibility of superficial movement relative thereto.

From the foregoing description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, it is believed that the features and advantages of my invention will be clearly understood and appreciated. It is desired to point out, however, that while only a specific form of my invention has been illustrated and described, the same is readily capable of embodiment in specifically different forms within its spirit and scope as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A one-piece resilient spring steel spike holding clamp plate comprising a first end portion to be seated upon a railway track element, a second end portion to be seated upon the head of a spike, and a medial portion to be fastened under downward fiexure to a tie plate to cause said second end portion to exert constant downward pressure upon the spike and thus prevent upward loosening thereof relative to a tie into which it is driven, said second end portion being stepped downwardly relative to said medial portion, and a substantially vertically disposed leg portion connecting said second end portion with said intermediate portion and through which force is transmitted from said medial portion to said second end portion and the spike, said second end portion including a side portion to seat upon the tie plate to hold the clamp plate against sidewise tilting movement.

2. A one-piece resilient spring steel spike holding clamp plate comprising a first end portion to be seated upon a railway track element, a second end portion to be seated upon the head of a spike, and a medial portion to be fastened under downward fiexure to a tie plate to cause said second end portion to exert constant downward pressure upon the spike and thus prevent upward loosening thereof relative to a tie into which it is driven, said second end Portion including a side portion to seat upon the tie plate to hold the clamp plate against sidewise tilting movement.

GEORGE W. MULLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 968,155 Holden Aug. 23, 1910 1,649,991 Caron Jan. 7, 1913 1,072,991 Quin Sept. 9, 913 1,852,469 Muller Apr. 5, 1932 1,886,265 Andreianov Nov. 1, 1932 2,095,462 Willard Oct. 12, 1937 2, 62,365 Willard June 13, 1939 2,203,624 Clarkson June 1940 2,215,104 Kimmel Sept. 17, 1940 2,266,852 Cunningham Dec. 23, 1941 2,231,750 Clarkson May 5, 1942 2,291,743 Muller Aug. 4, 1942 2,357,499 Boyce et a1. Sept. 5, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 498,016 Great Britain Jan. 2, 1939 

